A black-and-white photo of a person mid-air in a Superman-style body suspension pose, supported by multiple hooks in their back and legs, smiling joyfully toward the camera. They are suspended horizontally in a large indoor space with high ceilings and visible rigging. A group of onlookers—some seated, some standing—watch with expressions of admiration, amusement, and support. The atmosphere is lively and communal, capturing a moment of shared experience and transformation.

The more you know

We spend a lot of time on ModBlog talking about the image galleries, and the wide variety of images contained within them.  In addition to the galleries, the stories, and ModBlog, BMEzine is host to it’s own Wiki.  It’s a great resource to get information regarding all sorts of topics that cover the entire spectrum of the body modification world.

Today I wanted to share with you an article about an unusual form of scar that at one point was extremely popular in certain parts of the world.

dueling_scar-11

What you’re seeing here is what is known as a dueling scar or Renommierschmiss.  I’ll let the Wiki explain.

At the turn of the 20th century, the dueling scar (or bragging scar, or Renommierschmiss) was popularized by upper-class Austrians and Germans who saw it as a mark of their class and honor, due to the social importance of dueling societies at Austrian universities at the time. If you were a doctor, lawyer, or professor, the dueling scar was a tattoo that signified your inclusion in an elite social rank, and visitors to university cafes would expect to see young men with bandaged faces.

The sport at the time was very different from modern fencing. The men used heavy sabers, and took turns chopping at each other five times apiece repeatedly. While padding was worn, the goal was to be injured. Kevin McAleer (author of Dueling: The Cult of Honor in Fin-de-Siecle Germany) writes,

The idea was to stand your man and show courage—not to inflict a wound, but to be wounded. That’s the very strange part of it—the true winner was he who walked away with a nice juicy scar, to show that he’d stood the test. The point was not to get the other guy, but to show that you could take it. You’d get these guys who looked like they’d walked into a propeller. It was pretty gnarly, but the guys were damn proud to look that way.

The scars showed you had courage and education, and were good husband material. A lot of these kids were rather good-looking, and you didn’t have to ruin your whole face in dueling. The scars usually accumulated on the left side of the face, so from the right profile, he still looked good. And even if it was an ugly, knotted scar, women were attracted by everything it implied, and the pride with which the wearer bore it.

The main thing we’ve learned from this, is that no matter the culture or the era, chicks dig scars.

But seriously, it seems that while the practice of dueling for scars seems to have faded over time, the practice of intentional scarification has definitely carried on.  Now I haven’t had the pleasure of getting a gnarly, unintentional scar, but I’m sure some of you have.  Anyone have a “I got this scar when…” story to share?

Comments

166 responses to “The more you know”

  1. fanny Avatar

    for whatever reason the guy on the picture has it, i still find it very attractive…

  2. fanny Avatar

    for whatever reason the guy on the picture has it, i still find it very attractive…

  3. jimmieknuckles Avatar
    jimmieknuckles

    i have a dueling scar, im definitely an uber-nationalist extremist,

  4. jimmieknuckles Avatar
    jimmieknuckles

    i have a dueling scar, im definitely an uber-nationalist extremist,

  5. baracudaboy Avatar
    baracudaboy

    nazi uniforms and regalia is cool, their ideas are not.
    how retarded are you guys for not just sticking with that argument and leaving it be huh?

    all this fighting is for what? nothing. all you guys are doing is arguing in comment boxes on a dinky website (no offense…but compared to the entire web) about stupid shit that no ones cares about.

    this post is about dueling scars, which I think are awsome and hot.
    NOT nazis, NOT political ideas, NOT stupid shit.
    ugh, some people…

  6. baracudaboy Avatar
    baracudaboy

    nazi uniforms and regalia is cool, their ideas are not.
    how retarded are you guys for not just sticking with that argument and leaving it be huh?

    all this fighting is for what? nothing. all you guys are doing is arguing in comment boxes on a dinky website (no offense…but compared to the entire web) about stupid shit that no ones cares about.

    this post is about dueling scars, which I think are awsome and hot.
    NOT nazis, NOT political ideas, NOT stupid shit.
    ugh, some people…

  7. hm Avatar
    hm

    “chicks dig scars”?

    erm.

  8. hm Avatar
    hm

    “chicks dig scars”?

    erm.

  9. Nyghtslave Avatar
    Nyghtslave

    I used to have a scar on my forehead from whre I ate tarmac (was riding my bike, truck wanted to overtake me, but got the back of his truck stuck on my steering wheel when he came to the right too quickly), which is now covered by a new one from falling off the back of a scooter (the driver thought it would be ok to go over a bump…). I hit the street so hard my skin split open.
    I also have two very nice cutting lines on my left ankle, one on the inside (curved) and one on the outside (straigt). Doctors had to put in a plate and 6 pins because I broke it in 3 places after I fell backwards (yes, that really was all it took…)

    I have a bunch more, but these are the more noticeable ones.

  10. Nyghtslave Avatar
    Nyghtslave

    I used to have a scar on my forehead from whre I ate tarmac (was riding my bike, truck wanted to overtake me, but got the back of his truck stuck on my steering wheel when he came to the right too quickly), which is now covered by a new one from falling off the back of a scooter (the driver thought it would be ok to go over a bump…). I hit the street so hard my skin split open.
    I also have two very nice cutting lines on my left ankle, one on the inside (curved) and one on the outside (straigt). Doctors had to put in a plate and 6 pins because I broke it in 3 places after I fell backwards (yes, that really was all it took…)

    I have a bunch more, but these are the more noticeable ones.

  11. Greenling Avatar
    Greenling

    I have some unintentional scars… but most of what I have are from injuries I inflicted upon myself in one way or another. Like the horseshoe-shaped pair of scars on my right knee from hiding under a waterslide that was under construction, or the pockmark on my forehead from chicken pox, or the chevron scars on my right pinkie finger from snapping a full-length mirror with my bare hands, or the myriad cuts on my right leg and left bicep, or the teeny little spot and dash from twisting a bit of skin in a safety pin and later cutting across my wrist, or the burn on my back from when I fell asleep against a heater, or the sulphuric acid burn shaped like a teardrop on the back of my hand, or – my current crowning glory, the 3-inch long wavy burn scar down my left forearm, the result of me pouring a pipette of HNO3 down my sleeve to see how it would scar.

  12. Greenling Avatar
    Greenling

    I have some unintentional scars… but most of what I have are from injuries I inflicted upon myself in one way or another. Like the horseshoe-shaped pair of scars on my right knee from hiding under a waterslide that was under construction, or the pockmark on my forehead from chicken pox, or the chevron scars on my right pinkie finger from snapping a full-length mirror with my bare hands, or the myriad cuts on my right leg and left bicep, or the teeny little spot and dash from twisting a bit of skin in a safety pin and later cutting across my wrist, or the burn on my back from when I fell asleep against a heater, or the sulphuric acid burn shaped like a teardrop on the back of my hand, or – my current crowning glory, the 3-inch long wavy burn scar down my left forearm, the result of me pouring a pipette of HNO3 down my sleeve to see how it would scar.

  13. Madi Avatar
    Madi

    I have a lot of scars. Most of them are self hurt scars. Most on my forearms. But I have one big one that I did not do on purpose. It’s about 6 inches in length and very thick. It’s almost perfectly down the center of my skull. It starts right after my hairline. I hit myself in the head with and axe. Have you ever heard the saying “Never chop wood under a clothes line” Well I hadn’t, till then. I was about 15. The hospital accused me of some wild suicide attempt. It honestly was just a dumb mistake.

  14. Madi Avatar
    Madi

    I have a lot of scars. Most of them are self hurt scars. Most on my forearms. But I have one big one that I did not do on purpose. It’s about 6 inches in length and very thick. It’s almost perfectly down the center of my skull. It starts right after my hairline. I hit myself in the head with and axe. Have you ever heard the saying “Never chop wood under a clothes line” Well I hadn’t, till then. I was about 15. The hospital accused me of some wild suicide attempt. It honestly was just a dumb mistake.

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